Sunday Storm smashes guarantee

A few weeks back, we prophesied that PokerStars would struggle to meet it’s $1m guarantee in a special edition of its $11 Sunday Storm, but we were wrong. On December 11, a staggering 116,400 signed up for the anniversary event, taking the prizepool to $1.16m and wiping the smirk of those who thought there would be a juicy overlay.

But while the huge field may be another feather in PokerStars’ cap, for those chasing the bloated first prize it was a grueling journey. After 10 hours, the six-figure starting field had been whittled down to a final nine, as blinds reached the rarely seen 900,000/1,800,000 level.

Understandably, a six-way chop was agreed after the shorter stacks had hit the rail, leaving $20,000 on the line for the eventual winner. That would be chrjs2k, who banked a tidy $81,604 for his efforts after seeing of Kuzjaya when the runner-up’s A-6 failed to outdraw chrjs2k’s mighty deuces.

Here’s how the final table finished, and don’t forget this Sunday’s $10m guaranteed Sunday Million, which caps off PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebrations in style.